Diamondbacks frustrate Dodgers' plans

The Dodgers' Michael Young (left) is called out on a play at home plate as Arizona Diamondbacks' Miguel Montero applies the tag in the sixth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix.ROSS D. FRANKLIN, AP

With nearly every member of the front office on hand – but rookie right-hander Stephen Fife starting in place of Clayton Kershaw – the Dodgers were unable to close out the NL West, losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-4 Wednesday night.

The Dodgers’ magic number remains at two with one game left in Arizona and 10 games overall.

Sounds simple – but so did the plan to rest their regulars, sit on a double-digit lead and clinch the division early. But the Dodgers have now lost 10 of their past 14 and five of their past six.

“It’s still a pride thing. You understand where things stand but you don’t want to see them celebrate,” Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon McCarthy said. “You knew coming into this season that they were our competition. They were the ones who caught and passed us. We’re all aware of those things, you just don’t want it – not rubbed in your face – but you just don’t want to see it. If they go somewhere else and whatever happens is fine. You just don’t want them to do it on your home field and have to sit there and know that it’s going on. If you can get them out of here without having to see it, then all the better.”

The Dodgers could have sent Kershaw to the mound to close it out Wednesday night but opted to move him back three days in the rotation to get their ace rested and lined up for the post-season.

Fife proved a poor stand-in. He had pitched just twice in the past three weeks (two relief appearances totaling five innings that did not go well) and would not have started Wednesday if left-hander Chris Capuano were healthy.

Fife faced 18 batters and allowed six hits (one a two-run home run by Dodgers nemesis Paul Goldschmidt), three walks, hit two batters and threw two wild pitches.

“It is what it is,” Fife said of being put in the position of pitching to clinch the division. “At this point in the year when the magic number is two or three or whatever it is, it’s on everybody’s mind. Everybody in this clubhouse wants to clinch, get it over with as soon as we can. But I can’t say it had a big place in my mind.

“I just didn’t execute the way I should have. That goes on nobody’s shoulders but mine.”

That put the Dodgers in a 4-0 hole three innings into the game. The most surprising part was that it wasn’t any deeper. In fact, the Diamondbacks loaded the bases in four of the first eight innings and stranded 14 baserunners in the game.

The Dodgers climbed back into it with a 442-foot solo home run by Yasiel Puig and an RBI single by Gonzalez in the fourth and an RBI double by Tim Federowicz in the seventh.

In between, a blown call at home cost them a run that looked crucial at the time. Michael Young tried to score from first on Gonzalez’s sixth-inning double into the left-center field gap. Replays showed Young got his hand on home plate before Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero applied the tag. But first-base umpire Jim Joyce (running in to make the call as the umpires rotated to cover the play in the outfield) called Young out.

Gonzalez was ejected from the game for arguing the call while standing at second base.

“I just said, ‘If you guys are going to switch, hustle so you’re in position to make the call’ and that’s when he threw me out,” Gonzalez said. “I could see it from second base. He got it wrong because he was not in position to make the call. If they’re going to switch, hustle to get in position.

“That’s why he got it wrong. It’s not that he wanted to get it wrong. It’s because he wasn’t in position to see it.”

That became less pivotal when the Diamondbacks finally broke through again, turning a one-run game into a rout by scoring five runs against Dodgers relievers Ronald Belisario and Peter Moylan in the eighth inning.

“You asked me that the other night about the past 12 games or whatever and really – those games are gone,” Mattingly said of questions about his level of concern with his team’s 14-game stall near the finish line. “We’re sitting where we’re at. We like where we’re at. So it’s one game at a time. Tonight’s a frustrating game. But other than that, it’s not really frustrating.”

The Dodgers' Michael Young (left) is called out on a play at home plate as Arizona Diamondbacks' Miguel Montero applies the tag in the sixth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. ROSS D. FRANKLIN, AP
The Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez hits an RBI single against in the fourth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES
The Dodgers' Yasiel Puig high fives teamates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES
The Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez vents in the dugout after being ejected for arguing a call in the sixth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly argues with second base umpire Andy Fletcher after he ejected Adrian Gonzalez in the sixth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES
The Dodgers' Michael Young is called out on a tag by catcher Miguel Montero of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the sixth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. RALPH FRESO, GETTY IMAGES
The Dodgers' Yasiel Puig hits a solo home run as Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero watches in the fourth inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. MATT YORK, AP
Dodgers Starting pitcher Stephen Fife reacts after giving up a two run home run to Paul Goldschmidt (not pictured) of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning at Chase Field on Monday in Phoenix. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES

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